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THE Book of Genesis says that after the flood, the descend- ants of Noah spread out over the earth, "every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations". (Gen: 10:5). The Judeo-Christian-Muslim tradition is far from being the only one that makes such a strong link between 'tongue' and 'nation' or that gives a particular language a special, quasi-divine status as the re- pository of meaning and of cultural memory. But the Bible is the most direct source of the modern (post-Renaissance) concep- tion of the nation as a people linked by birth, language and culture and belonging to a par- ticular place. Have you ever wondered how the first nation and the first language on earth were formed and created in the first place? The origin of language, its relationship with human evo- lution, and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries. While Charles Darwin's the- ory of evolution by natural se- lection had provoked a surge of speculation on the origin of language over a century and a half ago, the speculations had not resulted in a scientific consensus. Despite this, aca- demic interest had returned to the topic by the early 1990s. Nations and languages evolved over long periods, not created at a single point. Any language owes its origin to the imitation and modification, aided by signs and gestures, of various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, and man's own instinctive cries. The documented history and origins of the existence of states, even older "state-na- tions", provide a political and historical foundation for na- tion-formation. It clearly tran- spires that shared ethnic tra- ditions and a unified sense of culture are crucial for a group to become a nation. On the other hand, linguistic, archaeological and genetic ev- idence suggests that language likely emerged in sub-Saharan Africa around the time of the speciation of Homo sapiens, some 100,000 years ago. Lan- guages changed and evolved, much like a tree's branches. As groups of people who spoke the same language became ge- ographically separated, their languages changed in different ways, leading to new languag- es. Environmental conditions and social interactions influ- enced language development. The spread of a prestigious language, or growing aware- ness of a shared language, helped foster a community that could become a nation. Shared languages fostered a sense of community and shared identity. Nationalist movements often promoted a single, codified language to create unity within the nation. However, 'national languages' were often artificial constructs that emerged through intellec- tual and political efforts rather than being primordial, natural entities. Yet nations, on the other hand, were, and still are, of- ten formed by processes like state-building, shared culture and ethnicity, modernisa- tion (including education and communication), conflict and psychological identification, transforming societies into distinct national groups. The process of nation-forma- tion in Europe, for example, involved both the transforma- tion of existing state-nations and the rise of non-dominant ethnic groups within mul- ti-ethnic empires. Language and nation are so intimately related that one does not go without the other. A language without a country could disappear. But this is al- so the case of a country with- out a language. But which one comes first? Nation or lan- guage? Let us consider the examples of Cyprus, which made the choice of Greek, and of our nation, Malta, which fixed its Arabised Canaanite dialect full of Italian, French, and English words. The people of Cyprus and of Malta began by fixing their linguistic identity to be able to establish for them- selves the foundations of their political entity and immunity. Without a conscious will- ingness to establish a nation, a dialect doesn't evolve to be- come a language the way it did in Malta and the way the Syr- iac language was created con- sciously by the first Christians of the Levant to demarcate their identity. Exceptionally, however, the state of Israel belies all the above. The state of Israel be- gan as a concept long before it became a reality. In Europe in the second half of the 19th century, Zionism was a cul- tural and political movement, and it was then that the "re- vival" of the Hebrew language began with regular exchanges and columns in Central Eu- ropean Jewish newspapers. But only the revelation of the full scale of Nazi genocide in 1945 brought consensus over the moral imperative for the founding of a Jewish na- tion-state. Those who came to settle in Israel were immediately con- fronted with their vast cultur- al differences, including the lack of a common language. The project of reviving Mod- ern Hebrew, consequently, be- came a political necessity. The unanswerable question for now is whether national languages, together with the nations to which they are at- tached, represent a historical phase that is on a course of decline heading for eventual disappearance, or an invention that has proven too useful for human social organisation to be given up. Evidence for now suggests that what has been happen- ing around the world should in fact be called 'glocalisation' to denote the combination of globalisation with the resur- gence of local, subnational ter- ritories of belonging. 10 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 30 SEPTEMBER 2026 OPINION Nation formation and language creation Mark Said Veteran lawyer The unanswerable question for now is whether national languages, together with the nations to which they are attached, represent a historical phase that is on a course of decline heading for eventual disappearance, or an invention that has proven too useful for human social organisation to be given up